ROMAN MEDICINE  denounced Greek physicians as the worst enemies of Rome
and accused them of poisoning and murdering their clients
OUTLINE
I. MEDICINE IN THE ROMAN WORLD
A. The Romans
B. Cato the Elder
C. Asclepiades
D. Pliny the Elder
E. Descorides
F. Aulus Cornelius Celius
G. Aretaus
H. Soranus
II. GALEN AND GALENISM
A. Galen
III. GALEN ON ANATOMICAL PROCEDURES
IV. GALEN ON PHYSIOLOGY: BLOOD, BREATH, PNEUMA
AND SPIRITS
V. GALEN ON THERAPEUTICS AND CAUSES OF DISEASE
I. MEDICINE IN THE ROMAN WORLD
 The Roman Empire
- was a complex and vigorous combination of Greek and
Roman cultural elements, forged through centuries of
war
A. The Romans
 Originally a republic of yeoman farmers, rather than
merchants and adventurers like the Greeks
 Excelled in the arts of warfare and administration,
architecture, engineering, public health and hygiene
 Healing of the sick as a family duty
 Did not employ physicians
 Considered doctors as slaves
 Skeptical of professional physicians
 Relied on combination of magic and folklore to fight disease
 Considered it was ethical o charge fees for treating sick
 Roman surgeons could perform amputations and plastic
surgery as well as operations for bladder stones, goiter,
hernia, cataract and snakebites
 Comparing Rome to Greece
 Critics characterized the Romans as people without art,
literature, science or philosophy.
 However, they could never be called to a people without
Gods since they accumulated deities for all major organs
and functions of the body.
 Nevertheless, they still had room in their hearts for new
deities, especially when the old ones seemed unwilling to
do their jobs.
 293 B.C.E. – traditional Gods were unable to stop a
pestilence that was decimating Rome, the elders then
consulted Asclepius at the Temple of Epidarius. While
the Asclepiads conferred with the Roman delegation, a
sacred snake emerged from the temple and boarded the
ship; this was taken as an omen that the Greek god of
medicine intended to help Rome. A temple for Asclepius was
constructed at a site selected by the snake, the epidemic
ended, and the cult of Asclepius was established in Rome.
However, the reception the Greeks received was not always
D. Dioscorides
quite as warm as that awarded to Asclepius.
A. Cato the Elder
[Santiago, Posadas, Mallari]
 enemy of all doctors
 advocated cabbage as a universal remedy
-used on wounds
 provided a charm that was supposed to reduce dislocation
 lived at the ripe old age of 84 when the average life
expectancy during the era was about 25 years
 PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENGINEERING
 Sanitary Engineering Achievements
- played an important role in maintaining public health
- associated with Republican and Imperial Rome
 Hospitals – only for the military
 Public Baths
- half the water: for public bath
- other half: for two million residents
 Healthy Practice of Cremation
- The writings of other Romans reflect valuable insights
into problems of hygiene, sanitation and public health,
especially the importance of water supplies and
sewage disposal.
 On Architecture (ca. 27 B.C.E.)
- written by Vitruvius (Roman Architect and Engineer)
- a text on an admirable concern for the purity of water and
sanitary location of dwelling places
 Marcus Terentius Varro (117-27 B.C.E.)
- suggested that swampy places might be inhabited by
extremely minute animals that could enter the body
through the mouth and nose and can cause serious illness
 Romans were soon eagerly consulting Greek physicians who
B. Asclepiades
offered them a medical regimen more sophisticated than
cabbages and incantation.
 came to Rome as a rhetorician
 offered treatments that were guaranteed to wok “swiftly,
safely, and sweetly”
 advised a sensible regimen with individualized attention to
diet, rest and exercise, along with simple remedies such as
C. Pliny the Elder
wine, water and cold baths
 “It is quite certain that a person never has his eyes gouged
without feeling sickness at the stomach.”
 suspicious of professional physicians
 complained that physicians learned their craft by
experimenting on patients and denounced them as the only
men who could kill with impunity and blame death on the
victim for having failed to obey professional advice
 Pliny’s Natural History
 suggested simple prescriptions such as:
 Wound Dressings – made of wine, vinegar, eggs, honey,
powdered earthworms and pig dung
 Treatment of Parasitic Worms – ferns
 Ephedron – for asthma, cough and hemorrhage
Page 1 of 6
  exemplifies the generalization that Roman Medicine was
usually carried out by Greek physicians
 serve as a medicus to Nero’s armies
 studied many novel plant species, hundreds of which were
not known to Hippocrates
 provided valuable information about medically useful plants,
their place of origin and habitat, growth characteristics and
proper uses
Figure 1: Dioscorides examining medicinal plants
 De materia medica (The Materials of Medicine)
 compiled by Dioscorides has many bizarre and
unpleasant recipes
 based the classification of drug affinity system rather
than on traditional methods such as plant morphology or
habitat
 Many of the herbal remedies identified and classified by
Dioscorides can be found on the spice shelf of the average
modern kitchen:
 Cinnamons and cassia
- used as treatment of inflammations, venomous bites,
poisons, runny noses and menstrual disorders
 Asparagus
- recommended as a means of inducing sterility and
wearing the stalk as an amulet was said to increase the
effectiveness of the prescriptions
 River Crabs, Gentian Root and Wine
- remedy for victims of bites by mad dogs, then to prevent
complications the patient should eat the liver of the dog
in question and wear its tooth as an amulet
 Bedbugs mixed with meat and beans
- remedy for malaria
E. Aulus Cornelius Celsus
 wrote the first medical work in Latin
 not a doctor but a wealthy landowner
 declared that vivisection was cruel and unnecessary even
though anatomy was an important part of medical
knowledge
 discussed surgery and described the signs of infection n
surgical wounds
 According to him, surgery should be the most satisfying field
for the practitioner because it brought results that were
more certain than practitioner treatment by drugs and diets
 described the signs of infection in surgical wounds
 had mastered tools and techniques that were unknown to
his Hippocratic predecessors such as the use of ligature for
torn blood vessels and special spoons and dilators to remove
barbed arrows from wounds
 Calor (heat), Rubor (redness), Dolor (pain), and Tumor
(swelling)
o Four signs of infection
[Santiago, Posadas, Mallari]
o We know them today as cardinal signs of
inflammation
 De re medicina (On Medicine)
 the first medical work in Latin
 provides a valuable survey of the medical and surgical
practices of first-century Rome
 After the death of Hippocrates, Greek medicine, which was
never a monolithic enterprise fragmented into various
disputation sects, some named after individuals and others
such as the Dogmatists, Empiricists and Methodists for their
special approach to medical theory.
 The Dogmatists
- emphasized the study of anatomy and claimed
Erasistratus, Herophilus and Hippocrates as their
ancestors
- taught that physicians must study anatomy and
physiology as well as the evident, immediate and
obscure causes of disease
 The Empiricists
- believed it was necessary to understand evident or
immediate causes
- claimed that the study of anatomy was totally useless
for understanding living beings
- regarded human vivisection with horror and held it a
crime to cause death in the name of the healing art
- emphasis on action was reflected in the excellent
reputation of Empiric surgeons
 The Methodists
- believed that the body was composed of atoms and
pores
- disease was the result of abnormal states of the pores
due to excess tension or relaxation
- thus, knowledge of the three common conditions of
the human body – the constricted, the lax and the
mixed – provided all the guidance the physician
needed to treat his patients.
- claimed that no further research into the causes of
disease and therapeutics were necessary because their
system was complete
- Juvenal, a Roman satirist, said that Methodist
practitioners had killed more patients than they could
count.
 Celsus concluded that no sect was wholly right or wrong. In
seeking impartially for the truth, it was necessary to
recognize that some things that were not strictly pertinent to
medical practice were valuable in stimulating and improving
the mind of the practitioner.
 Properly considered, the art of medicine could be divided
into three parts:
- Cure by diet (Lifestyle)
- Cure by medications
- Cure by surgery
 The art of medicine should be rational, Celsus concluded
and based on immediate causes, but ultimately medicine
was an art that entailed a great deal of informed
guesswork.
F. Aretaus
 Described diabetes as “a liquefaction of the flesh and bones
into the urine”
o Polyuria
 Diabetes, in Greek, means, “I pass through”
Page 2 of 6
  Mellitus, meaning “sweet” or “honey”
 Coined the terms “tetanus” and “opisthotonous”
G. Soranus
 Studied Gynecology and Conception
 Described the anatomy of the female organs
o Described ovaries using the term didymus meaning “twin
gonads”
 Described the use of pessaries for contraception
 Invented vaginal speculum
II. GALEN AND GALENISM
A. Galen
 Physician known as the Medical Pope of the Middle Ages
and the Mentor of Renaissance anatomists and
physiologists
 Left voluminous writings that touch on all the major medical,
scientific, philosophical and religious issues of his time
 Emperor Marcus Aurelius called him the “First of
Physicians and Philosophers”
 Scholars have said that as a physician, he was essentially a
Hippocratic but as a philosopher, he was generally an
Aristotelian
 Most prolific writer on medical subjects of ancient times
- wrote books on circulations and vessels
 Advocated energy blood letting
- Women who bleed monthly has fewer disease compared
to men who do not bleed
 Believed that nerves were hollow ducts and carried pneuma
or vital spirits to the muscles
 Born in Pergamum, a city in Asia Minor that claimed to be
the cultural equal of Alexandria.
 14 years old, he had mastered mathematics and philosophy
 Asserted he had emulated the excellent character of his
father
III. GALEN ON ANATOMICAL PROCEDURES
Figure 2: Galen contemplating on Human Skeleton
 Aelius Nikon
- a wealthy architect, known for his amiable and benevolent
nature is the father of Galen.
- he was told by Asclepius that his son would become a
physician
 composed three books while still a student of medicine at
the famous sanctuary of Asclepius in Pergammum
 he emphasized the importance of fostering a love of truth in
the youth that would inspire them to work day and night to
learn all that had been written by the Ancients and to find
ways of testing and proving of such knowledge
[Santiago, Posadas, Mallari]
 he left Pergamum after the death of his father to continue
his medical education in Smyrna, Corinth and Alexandria
 he was appointed as physician to the gladiators on returning
to Pergamum: observed and learned a lot from anatomy of
gladiators
 In, 161, he arrived in Rome where through good fortune,
brilliant diagnoses and miraculous cures he soon attracted
many influential patients, patrons and admirers
 He engaged in public anatomical lectures, demonstrations
and disputes composed some of his major anatomical and
physiological texts
 He returned five years later to Pergamum claiming that the
hostility from other physicians drove him out of Rome
however his critics noted that his abrupt departure coincided
with the outbreak of an epidemic that had entered the city
along with soldiers returning from Parthian war
 He permanently stayed in Rome and serve as a physician as
a request from Emperor Marcus Aurelius and enjoyed the
camaraderie and protection offered by the said emperor,
Commodius Septimus, Severus and other prominent figures
 On His Own Books
- a guide for cautious readers composed by Galen to
described his genuine works as well as a reading program
for physicians
- unfortunately, a fire in the Temple of Peace in 191,
destroyed many of his manuscripts
 Galen taught that the best physician was also a
philosopher. Therefore, a true physician must master the
three branches of philosophy:
 Logic, the science of how to think
 Physics, the science of nature
 Ethics, the science of what to do
 With such knowledge, the physician could gain his patient’s
obedience and the admiration due to a god. Ideally, the
physician would practice medicine for the love of mankind,
not for profit because the pursuit of science and money were
mutually exclusive.
 Anatomical research for Galen was the source of a “perfect
theology” when approached as the study of form and
function in terms of the usefulness of the parts. Instead of
sacrificing for bulls and incense, the anatomist demonstrated
reverence for the Creator by discovering his wisdom, power
and goodness through anatomical investigations.
 Dissection was a religious experience for Galen.
 Systematic dissection
- essential preparation for the surgeon, because a
practitioner without anatomical knowledge could
inadvertently or negligently injure his patients.
- where the surgeon could choose the site of incision,
knowledge of anatomy would allow him to do the least
damage possible.
- On the other hand, if the surgeon had to sever muscles
to treat an abscess, his anatomical knowledge would
allow him to predict subsequent damage and thus
escape blame.
- Anatomy could also be used to settle larger philosophical
issues, such as the controversy about the seat of reason
in the human body.
Page 3 of 6
  Aristotelians
 placed reason in the heart, while others placed it in the
head.
 One Aristotelian argument was that the voice, which is
the instrument of reason, came from the chest.
 Galen’s demonstration that the recurrent laryngeal
nerves control the voice vindicated those who argued for
control by the brain and explained what happened when
surgeons accidentally severed these nerves.
 Until the sixteenth century, Galen was generally accepted as
the ultimate authority on anatomical and physiological
questions despite the fact that, because of Roman
prohibitions on human dissections, his ‘‘human anatomy’’
was based on dissection of other species.
 Certainly, Galen did not conceal the fact that his work was
based on studies of other animals, including pigs, elephants,
or that ‘‘ridiculous imitation of man,’’ the Barbary ape.
 While Galen could not do systematic human anatomies, this
does not mean that he never studied human cadavers. His
extensive anatomical experience made it possible for him to
put fortuitous opportunities to good advantage.
 Celsus
- suggested that a physician could learn a good deal about
the form and functions of the internal organs by exploiting
the wounds and injuries of his patients as ‘‘windows’’
into the body.
IV. GALEN ON PHYSIOLOGY: BLOOD, BREATH, PNEUMA
AND SPIRITS
 Never satisfied with purely anatomical description, Galen
constantly struggled to find ways of proceeding from
structure to function, from pure anatomy to experimental
physiology.
 By extending medical research from anatomy to physiology,
Galen established the foundations of a program that would
transform the Hippocratic art of medicine into the science of
medicine.
 Given the magnitude of his self-imposed task, and the
voluminous and prolix nature of his writings, the totality of
his work has been more honored than understood.
 Galen’s System of Physiology (Galenic Physiology)
 encompassed concepts of blood formation,
respiration, the heartbeat, the arterial pulse,
digestion, nerve function, embryology, growth,
nutrition, and assimilation.
 rested on the Platonic doctrine of a threefold
division of the soul. This provided a means of dividing
vital functions into processes governed by vegetative,
animal, and rational ‘‘souls’’ or ‘‘spirits.’’
 Within the human body, pneuma (air), which was the
breath of the cosmos, was subject to modifications
brought about by the innate faculties of the three
principle organs: the liver, heart, and brain, which are
distributed by three types of vessels: veins, arteries,
and nerves.
 In essence, pneuma was modified by the liver so that it
became the nutritive soul or natural spirits that
supported the vegetative functions of growth and
nutrition; this nutritive soul was distributed by the veins.
[Santiago, Posadas, Mallari]
 The heart and arteries were responsible for the
maintenance and distribution of innate heat and pneuma
or vital spirits to warm and vivify the parts of the body.
 The third adaptation, which occurred in the brain,
produced the animal spirits required for sensation and
muscular movement; the animal spirits were distributed
through the nerves.
 In Galen’s physiological scheme, blood was continuously
synthesized from ingested foods. The useful part of the food
was transported as chyle from the intestines via the portal
vein to the liver, where, by virtue of the innate faculty of the
liver, it was transformed into dark venous blood.
 Tissues could then suck up the nutriments they needed from
the blood by virtue of their faculty for specific selection. The
useless part of the food was converted into black bile by the
spleen.
 Like Erasistratus, Galen assumed that there must be
connections between the veins (which arose from the liver)
and the arteries (which arose from the heart) because
bleeding from any vessel could drain the whole system but
Galen ingeniously refuted the idea that, under normal
conditions, the arteries contain only air.
 According to Galen’s scheme, the arterial pulse was
generated by the heart. During the diastole of the heart, the
dilation of the arteries drew in air through the pores in the
skin and blood from the veins. Thus, the arteries served the
function of nourishing the innate heat throughout the body.
This concept could be demonstrated by tying a ligature
around a limb so that it was tight enough to cut off the
arterial pulse. Below the ligature, the limb would become
cold and pale, because the arteries were no longer able to
supply the innate heat.
 For Galen’s system to work, blood had to pass from the right
ventricle to the left ventricle. Therefore, he assumed that
blood in the right side of the heart could follow various
paths. Some of the blood carried impurities, or ‘‘sooty
vapors’’, for discharge by the lungs via the artery-like
vein (pulmonary artery). Blood could also pass from the
right side to the left side of the heart by means of pores in
the septum. The pores themselves were not visible, but
Galen assumed that the pits found in the septum were the
mouths of the pores.
 Humoralism
 embodied in Galenism
 was capable of explaining the genesis and essence of all
diseases and rationalizing all clinical findings.
 According to Galen, the humors were formed when
nutriments were altered by the innate heat that was
produced by the slow combustion taking place in the
heart.
- Foods of a warmer nature tend to produce bile,
while those of a colder nature produced an excess of
phlegm. An excess of bile caused ‘‘warm diseases’’
and an excess of phlegm resulted in ‘‘cold diseases.’’
- Several Galenic texts dealt with food, the humors,
and the relationship between food and the humors.
 After appropriate ‘‘digestion’’ in the lungs, inhaled air was
brought to the heart by the pulmonary vein. The modified air
was further acted on in the heart and transported to other
Page 4 of 6
 parts of the body by the arteries. Arterial blood was
especially fine and vaporous so that it could nourish the vital
spirit. Further refinement was accomplished in the arteries
that formed the rete mirabile.
 Rete Mirabile
 a network of vessels found at the base of the brain of
oxen and other animals, but not in humans.
 The transformation of arterial blood into animal spirits in
the brain and their distribution via the nerves completed
the threefold system of spirits.
I. GALEN ON ANATOMICAL PROCEDURES
V. GALEN ON THERAPEUTICS AND CAUSES OF DISEASE
 When writing about the nature of therapeutics, Galen argued
that scientific knowledge of the causes of disease was
essential for successful treatment.
 For prognosis, Galen relied on traditional tools, such as the
examination of the pulse and the urine, and a rather rigid
version of the Hippocratic doctrine of the ‘‘critical days.’’
 Like Hippocrates, Galen was an excellent clinician and a
brilliant diagnostician who believed that the physician must
explain disease in terms of natural causes.
 ‘‘Do not inquire from the gods how to discover by
divination,’’ he warned his readers, ‘‘but take your instruction
from some anatomy teacher.’’
 All diseases might have a natural cause, but Galen was
willing to accept medical advice offered by Asclepius, the
god of healing. When Galen was suffering from a painful
abscess, Asclepius appeared in a dream and told him to
open an artery in his right hand. A complete and speedy
recovery followed this treatment.
 Averting disease by rigid adherence to the principles of
Galenic hygiene required continuous guidance by a
competent physician, as set forth in Galen’s On Hygiene.
 In contrast to Celsus, who believed that the temperate
Roman had little need for medical advice, Galen argued that
a highly individualized regimen was essential ‘‘for Greeks and
those who, though born barbarians by nature, yet emulate
the culture of the Greeks.’’
 The individualized health-promoting regimen prescribed by
the physician required constant attention to the ‘‘six non-
naturals’’.
 Six Non-Naturals
 a confusing Galenic term for factors that, unlike
geography, weather, season, and age, could be brought
under the patient’s control.
 Today’s health and fitness experts would refer to the
non-naturals as lifestyle choices, that is, food and
drink, sleeping and waking, exercise and rest,
‘‘regularity,’’ and ‘‘mental attitude.’’
 In the hands of less gifted practitioners, Galen’s program for
a sophisticated individualized approach to the prevention
and treatment of disease degenerated into a system of
bleeding, purging, cupping, blistering, starvation diets, and
large doses of complex mixtures of drugs.
 Despite his reverence for Hippocrates, when confronted by
disease, Galen was not willing to stand by passively, doing
no harm, while waiting for nature to heal the patient. A
major work called Method of Healing and many other
texts make this preference for action abundantly clear.
 Galen regarded bleeding as the proper treatment for almost
every disorder, including hemorrhage and fatigue. Great
[Santiago, Posadas, Mallari]
skill was needed to determine how much blood should be
taken, which vein should be incised, and the proper time for
the operation.
 As proof that nature prevented disease by ridding the body
of excess blood, Galen argued that many diseases that
attacked men did not affect women, because their
superfluous blood was eliminated by menstruation or
lactation. Women with normal menstrual cycles supposedly
enjoyed immunity to gout, arthritis, epilepsy, melancholy,
apoplexy, and so forth. Men who frequently eliminated
excess blood through hemorrhoids or nosebleeds could also
expect to enjoy freedom from such diseases.
 In terms of humoral doctrine, bleeding accomplished the
therapeutic goals shared by patient and physician by
apparently ridding the body of putrid, corrupt, and harmful
materials. Some scientists suggest that bleeding might
actually have benefited some patients by suppressing the
clinical manifestations of certain diseases, such as malaria,
by lowering the availability of iron in the blood. Generally
speaking, anemia is not a desirable condition, but the
availability of iron in the blood may determine the ability of
certain pathogens to grow and multiply.
 Bleeding would also affect the body’s response to disease by
lowering the viscosity of the blood and increasing its ability
to flow through the capillary bed. Bleeding to the point of
fainting would force the patient along the path to rest and
tranquility.
 Given the importance of good nursing and a supportive
environment, it should also be noted that when a feverish,
delirious, and difficult patient is ‘‘depleted’’ to the point of
fainting, the caretakers might also enjoy a period of rest and
recuperation.
 Complex drug mixtures were later called Galenicals and the
sign of ‘‘Galen’s Head’’ above the door identified
apothecary shops. Some Galenicals were pleasant enough
to be used as beauty aids by wealthy Roman matrons.
 Unguentum refrigerans
 an emulsion of water in almond oil, with white wax and
rose perfume, is similar to modern cold cream.
 Galen also developed elaborate speculative concepts about
the way in which medical preparations worked and provided
rationalizations for the positive medicinal value of amulets
and excrements. Anecdotes about the accidental discovery
of the medical virtues of various noxious agents were also
put to good use. For example, in On Simples, Galen
provided a lively account of the way in which a miserable old
man suffering from a horrible skin disease was cured after
drinking a jug of wine in which a poisonous snake had
drowned.
 Mithridates
 Famous for his knowledge of medicinal herbs, poisons,
and antidotes
 demonstrated the value of his recipes by means of
human experimentation.
 He was said to have sent along a condemned prisoner to
serve as a guinea pig when exchanging recipes for
antidotes with other researchers
 By taking a daily dose of his best antidotes, Mithridates
supposedly became immune to all poisons.
Page 5 of 6
  According to Galen, Nero’s physician Andromachus
used Mithradates’ poison lore to prepare the
ultimate antidote.

 Ultimate antidote
 formidable concoction containing some 64 ingredients,
including opium and viper’s flesh
 Andromachus claimed that his theriac was a health tonic
as well as a universal antidote.

 Galen’s skill and integrity were so highly regarded by his

patrons that three Roman emperors entrusted the
preparation of their theriac to him. Because others faced the
danger of encountering inferior or counterfeit products,
Galen suggested that purchasers test the strength of
theriacs by taking a drug that induced mild purging. If the
alleged theriac prevented the normal effect of the drug, it
might be genuine. Authentic theriac must be made with
ingredients of the highest quality.

 Highly respected as a physician and philosopher, Galen was

apparently as skillful in the art of medicine as in the science.
Aware of the bad repute brought to the profession by
displays of ambition, contentiousness, and greed, Galen
emphasized skill, dignity, and a disdainful attitude towards
money. He urged physicians to cultivate the art of eliciting
clues about the patient’s condition even before entering the
sickroom.
 One way was to casually question the messenger who called
for the physician, as well as the patient’s friends and family.
A secret examination of the contents of all basins removed
from the sickroom on their way to the dung heap and the
medicines already in use could provide further clues. The
pulse, casually examined while observing the patient, was
another valuable source of information. To escape blame for
failures and to win universal admiration, the physician must
cultivate the art of making his diagnoses and prognoses
seem like acts of divination. A clever application of this tactic
was to predict the worst possible outcome while reluctantly
agreeing to accept the case. If the patient died, the
physician’s prediction was vindicated; if the patient
recovered, the physician appeared to be a miracle worker.
 In many ways, Galen was truly a miracle worker; his
contemporaries acknowledged the remarkable quantity and
quality of his work. A simplified, transmuted, and partially
digested version of his work known as Galenism dominated
medical learning throughout the Middle Ages of Europe and
the Golden Age of Islam. Galen’s authority was not seriously
challenged until the introduction of printing and a revival
of interest in the true classics of antiquity made the
genuine works of Galen and Hippocrates widely available.
CHECKPOINT!
1. He denounced Greek physicians as the worst
enemies of Rome and accused them of
poisoning and murdering their clients.
2. Has many bizarre and unpleasant recipes
3. Known as the Medical Pope of Middle Ages
4. It is an essential preparation for the surgeon,
because a practitioner without anatomical
knowledge could inadvertently or negligently
injure his patients.
5. He suggested that a physician could learn a
good deal about the form and functions of the
internal organs by exploiting the wounds and
injuries of his patients as ‘‘windows’’ into the
body.
6. It was embodied in Galenism and was capable
of explaining the genesis and essence of all
diseases and rationalizing all clinical findings.
7. He was famous for his knowledge of medicinal
herbs, poisons, and antidotes.
8. It is an emulsion of water in almond oil, with
white wax and rose perfume, which is similar to
modern cold cream.

1. Cato the Elder

2. De materia medica (The Materials of
Medicine)
3. Galen
4. Systemic dissection
5. Celsus
6. Humoralism
7. Mithridates
8. Ungeuntum refrigerans

[Santiago, Posadas, Mallari] Page 6 of 6